Synopses & Reviews
Anton Chekhov
The Major Plays
Ivanov * The Sea Gull * Uncle Vanya * The Three Sisters * The Cherry Orchard
Let the things that happen onstage be just as complex and yet just as simple as they are in life,” Chekhov once declared. For instance, people are having a meal, just having a meal, but at the same time, their happiness is being created, or their lives are being smashed up.” So it is that his plays express life through subtle construction, everyday dialogue, and an electrically charged atmosphere in which even the most casual words and actions assume great importance in his characters lives. This principle sets his plays apart from the rest, steering them clear of melodrama, and draws the audience into the lives of Chekhovs colorful characters. Because of his adherence to realism, the playwright has been called an incomparable artist of life.”*
What makes his work great is that it can be felt and understood not only by any Russian but by anybody in the world.”*Leo Tolstoy
With a Foreword by Robert Brustein and an Afterword by Rosamund Bartlett
Synopsis
Five of Chekov's well-known plays express ways humans cope when trapped in their environment, revealing their weaknesses in the face of others' greed, and show how single affirmations remain in the midst of despair. Reissue.
Synopsis
What makes his work great is that it can be felt and understood... by anybody, said Leo Tolstoy of Chekhov's plays, which express life through subtle construction, everyday dialogue, and an electrically charged atmosphere.
Synopsis
150th Anniversary Edition Praised by Tolstoy as an "incomparable artist", Chekov is considered one of the masters of the short story. This collection features twenty of his most noted stories, including The Confession, Ninotchka, and The Cure for Drinking.
About the Author
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (18601904) was born in Taganrog, Russia, on the Sea of Azov, the son of a small shopkeeper and the grandson of a serf. At sixteen, he was left to fend for himself while his father fled with the rest of the family to Moscow, escaping debtors prison. After finishing school in his native town, Chekhov went to Moscow, where, with the aid of a scholarship, he entered the University to study medicine. To help with the family finances, he started publishing tales, anecdotes, jokes, and articles. By the time he took his medical degree in 1884, writing had become his main interest and occupation. His literary reputation grew with the publication of the book
Motley Stories (1886). That same year, he made the acquaintance of Alexei Suvorin, owner of the newspaper
New Time, who invited him to contribute longer tales at a higher rate. In 1888, he was awarded the Pushkin Prize for the collection
In the Twilight. This and the publication of the long story
The Steppe marked the beginning of Chekhovs recognition as one of Russias leading writers. In the years following, he produced his first serious full-length play,
Ivanov (1887), as well as a steady stream of short stories. The first production of his famous play
The Sea Gull (1896) was a miserable failure. But in 1898, the play was revived at the Moscow Art Theater and proved a resounding success, as did the Theaters productions of
The Three Sisters and
The Cherry Orchard. In 1901, he married the actress Olga Knipper. He died of tuberculosis.
Born in New York City in 1927, Robert Brustein is one of the countrys preeminent drama critics. He was Dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1966 to 1979 and then became director of the Loeb Drama Center and artistic director of American Repertory Theatre Company at Harvard, where he served until 2002. Among his influential books are The Third Theatre and Dumbocracy in America.
Rosamund Bartlett is a writer, scholar, translator, and lecturer specializing in Russian literature, music, and cultural history. Among her publications are Tolstoy: A Russian Life; the Oxford University Press translation of Anna Karenina; Chekhov: Scenes from a Life; and a Chekhov anthology entitled About Love and Other Stories, which was shortlisted for the Weidenfeld European Translation Prize.
Table of Contents
Anton Chekhov: Selected Stories Introduction
The Confession
He Understood
At Sea - A Sailor's Story
A Nincompoop
Surgery
Ninochka - A Love Story
A Cure for Drinking
The Jailer Jailed
The Dance Pianist
The Milksop
Marriage in Ten or Fifteen Years
In Spring
Agafya
The Kiss
THe Father
In Exile
Three Years
The House with the Mustard - An Artist's Story
Peasants
The Darling
Selected Bibliography